The Drake
The attack actually came with warning this time around, which was nice. Zoe saw them as they were coming in, slowly blotting out the stars in the sky. At first they looked like some kind of big black blob, or mass in the sky, but as they came closer she could make out individual specks. Not that she’d been standing around waiting for them to come closer – they’d been moving very fast. A bit like what she imagined a swarm of bats to be like. Only much worse. Bats would have been much easier to deal with. Her hand automatically reaching for the spear holstered on her back, as if to reassure her that she still had her weapon, she spared the night one last glance before turning around and bolting for the alarm. She punched the panel in the wall that set it off, regretted punching it at full strength for a moment because the hard metal had hurt, and then punched it twice more just to be safe. The alarm – a painfully loud wailing sound – began to echo throughout the village, and even as she stood on the ramparts Zoe could see lights being flicked on and figures starting to stir. Well, that was that job done. A lot of other people, she reasoned as she turned back to the ever-approaching cloud of enemies, would have probably considered that their job done, and run back down into the village to coop up somewhere. But she? She pulled the spear off of her back and levelled it at the sky. Now came the fun part. They were really close now – close enough that she could pick up individual bodies amongst the crowd of flying bastards. Humanoid-ish winged figures with hammerheads instead of hands, and stuff that vaguely resembled metal (and was about as hard) stuck to their heads as a defensive precaution. And they were getting closer. Closer. Close enough that she could see the blazing red light, almost like fire, pouring from their eye sockets. (She wasn’t sure how that helped them see.) Close enough-! Planting herself on top of the wall, she raised her spear, and, as the nearest creature flew towards her, she lunged forward and impaled it in the mouth. It jerked back, stopped in its tracks, and she gritted her teeth as the impact ran through her tensed muscles. Wasting no time, she twirled the spear around and spun in a full circle before jerking to a stop, throwing the creature off of her spear and over the battlements. As it arced through the air, she could already see it disintegrating. And that was one less to worry about. She’d have liked to not worry about anything – have a more casual fight, if that was possible – but the fact that the rest of them had descended upon her village like a swarm of insects (except much worse) meant that her work was far from over. Glancing around quickly, she spotted one of the things – darklings, she remembered them being called maybe – and without wasting a second, jumped off the battlement, through the air, and landed on its back. It shrieked and twisted around to shake her off, but as she fell she plunged her spear down into it. it gave a final shriek before stilling, and the two plummeted several feet onto the roof of someone’s house. Rolling away from the disintegrating corpse, she winced at the sight of her arm and knee all scraped, and hissed as she applied pressure to her ribs. To be fair, she’d gotten off decently considering she’d basically fallen out of the sky, but it still hurt. Shaking her head to clear it, she clutched the spear in her hand and twirled it subconsciously as she ran to the edge of the roof and surveyed the battleground, using the bird’s-eye view while she still had it to see where she’d be most needed. There was what looked to be a flock of darklings surrounding the blacksmith; so that was where she headed. Shimmying down the drainage pipe, she broke into a run as soon as she reached the ground and, when she was close enough, hurled the spear. It slammed into one of the three darklings trying to batter down the door to the building, and impaled it on one of the pillars that help up the open area (where blacksmithing actually took place, and where all three had been trying to break into the building from). The others immediately spotted her and began to fly forwards, presumably so they could avenge their dead comrade. Or maybe just kill her. She wasn’t sure these things knew what loyalty and revenge were. Knowing that the blacksmith itself was bound to have some weapons lying around, she wasn’t too worried about not having her spear to hand. Her main priority was avoiding having her skin touch the darklings – if that happened, she’d be gotten by whatever infectious substance they were made out of, and then… and then she would die, or worse. Nice and macabre. Diving under their hammer arms as the swiped at her, she grabbed a hammer of her own from off of the floor, jumped up, and flung it with all her might. It caught one of the darklings right in the forehead, and it reeled back, before rising again to hiss at her with the hammer embedded in its forehead. “You know,” she sighed out loud, “I really thought that’d do it.” Fortunately, she’d ended up close to where she’d thrown her spear, so without wasting any movement, she grabbed it and yanked it out of the pillar, letting the body of the first darkling drop bonelessly to the ground. She then darted forward and slashed the spear, letting the tip slice across both of the darklings’ chests. They staggered, if it was possible to stagger in mid-air, and she poised herself before stabbing first one and then the other in the head. Finished, they crumpled unceremoniously to the ground. At the same time, the door to the blacksmith opened. “WHERE ARE THE- oh.” One of the owners of the blacksmith, a Jane Adalwin, stopped short with her sword still held aloft as she caught sight of the scene. With close-cropped dirty blonde hair and a sooty brown apron covering her front, she looked very traditionally blacksmith-y, which was… well, it made sense contextually, at any rate. Lowering the weapon, Jane sighed and turned to Zoe. “Couldn’t have saved some for me?” She asked. “You know, when someone saves your life and livelihood, it’s tradition to thank them.” Zoe told her. Jane raised an eyebrow. “Don’t exaggerate. There were three of them. I could have taken them. Worst-case scenario, I would have had to sacrifice Wilder to ‘em as a distraction.” “That’s not funny, Miss Adalwin.” Came a voice from inside the main building. A second later, another figure emerged – Jane’s assistant, one Virgil Wilder. Unlike his superior, he didn’t exactly look like a blacksmith. He had a reedy physique, a general lack of safety equipment, and a missing left hand and forearm. The limb ended just below the elbow. She didn’t know how he’d lost it, but she wasn’t gonna pry. She’d only been in town for a few months. A practical stranger. “Oh!” Virgil gave a start as he registered she was there. “Hello, Zoe.” “Hey, hot stuff.” She winked at him, and even in the dim lighting she could see him flushing crimson. She laughed. He was too easy to tease. She resisted the urge to flirt further, because now really wasn’t the time, and settled for a bit of genuine conversation. “You doing alright?” He nodded, blush fading. “So far.” “As much as I’m sure you’re enjoying chinwagging with my assistant, shouldn’t you get back out there, Drake?” Jane cut into the conversation with a smirk of her own. “It’s “''The'' Drake”.” Zoe reminded her. She hadn’t come up with the title (it has sprung up from nowhere shortly after she’d arrived in the village) but if people were going to stick to it, the least they could do was stick to it properly. Also, they hadn’t really been chinwagging, but she wasn’t going to argue semantics now of all times. “Whatever.” Jane waved her off, still smirking. Nodding, Zoe made sure she was still holding her spear before turning on her heel and vaulting back over the blacksmith equipment out into the street. “Wait!” She turned back around to see Virgil holding something over the counter in his hand. Wandering close and taking it, she saw a small dagger with as long as her hand, including the hilt. A perfect little stowaway weapon! She looked up at Virgil and tried to express as much genuine appreciation as she could. “Thanks, hot stuff.” He flushed again, but held her gaze. “Don’t die out there.” She gave him a two-fingered salute. “Trust me, that ain’t the plan.” A screech echoed through the night air, and Zoe stuffed the dagger into her belt before turning around and beginning to sprint back into the action. “I’ll see you in the morning!” Category:Stories Category:Short Stories